I must say that I was asking the same questions... But having an income of $100 K (say family income of $150K) in 2000 then the crash... No particular savings... Expensive habits--eating out every night, bouts at the nail parlour, quick trips to the Bahamas, quick flings in Atlantic City... Periods of unemployment... Declining incomes... Lots of hopes... Need to keep up appearances (and the expenses that go with it... Unrealistic expectations that things would get better... Maybe an illness here or there... Some money for an aged parent... And hey presto, tent city...
M -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mike Spencer Sent: Monday, September 26, 2011 6:43 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Futurework] Re: FW: Once prosperous New Yorkers forced to liveunder canvas in tents Mike G. forwarded: > On Behalf Of Sid Shniad > > Once prosperous New Yorkers forced to live under canvas in tents > > Mrs Berenzweig, 61, used to make $100,000 ... a year as a designer > in New York's garment district. Now she and her husband Michael are > down and out in 'Tent City' in Lakeland, New Jersey. ...She and Mr > Berenzweig, a former radio producer....The couple had to leave their > $2,000-a-month house after Marilyn lost her job. They lived with their > 40-year-old daughter and her family for four months before a row drove > them out. So she was making $100K, hubby was probably in the same ballpark, the kids are long since grown and they lived in (for NYC) a low-rent dwelling -- not a condo with a million dollar mortgage and $2000/mo condo fees. Now they (appear to) have an $800 tent, blew a couple of hundred on a picket fence and $50 on a purely sculptural mailbox. What did they do with their money when it was rolling in? No investments, no summer cottage or lake-front lot, no Porsche? These are "poor" people? Maybe the Berenzweigs aren't typical of the "tent city" inhabitants (they certianly aren't typical of big-city homelessness) but it sounds to me more like a camp-out adventure than like homeless poverty. Maybe I have a distorted view of things or something. I've never lived full-time in a tent but there was a decade there when a bucket of water on the kitchen floor would freeze up over night in January. - Mike -- Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. /V\ [email protected] /( )\ http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/ ^^-^^ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
